Nigeria’s economy attracted capital inflow of $5.82 billion in Q2

Employees work on the trading floor at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) in Lagos, Nigeria, on Tuesday, April 2, 2019. The International Monetary Fund said Nigerias economy was growing too slowly to reduce poverty or joblessness and urged the government to boost revenue and scrap its system of multiple exchange rates. Photographer: Ruth McDowell/Bloomberg via Getty Images

GOING by the capital importation report released on Thursday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the value of capital inflow into the Nigeria economy stood at $5.82 billion in the second quarter of this year.

The data, supplied administratively by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), verified and validated by the NBS, represents a decrease of 31.41 per cent, compared to the first quarter of 2019 and 5.56 per cent increase, compared to the second quarter of 2018.

The largest amount of capital importation was received through portfolio investment, which accounted for 73.76 per cent (about $4.29 billion). It was followed by other investment, which accounted for 22.41 per cent ($1.3 billion) of total capital imported.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) accounted for 3.83 per cent ($222.89 million) of total capital imported in second quarter 2019.

According to the data, capital importation by banking dominated in second quarter, reaching $1.89 billion of the capital importation within the period.
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The United Kingdom (UK) emerged as the top source of capital investment in Nigeria in the second quarter with $3.13 billion. It accounted for 53.85 per cent of the total capital inflow within the period.

Trailing the UK on the list of top 10 were the United States (U.S.) with capital investment of $1.15 billion, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with capital inflow of $343.59 million and South Africa with $314.16 million dollars in the quarter under review.

The data explained that investment destination of choice, Lagos State, emerged as the top destination of capital investment in Nigeria in the period under review with $4.13 billion dollars, accounting for 71.09 per cent.

The NBS added that the Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc emerged at the top of capital investment in Nigeria in the second quarter with $1.76 billion, accounting for 30.34 per cent of the total capital inflow in the quarter.